When a person first enters an unfamiliar work space, it is useful for that person to know what devices are present in the space and often the person will spend the first few minutes looking around, effectively carrying out an inventory of the devices present.
Our co-pending UK patent application No. 0029293.8 describes a method by which an inventory of local devices can be effected by sound. More particularly, the devices are sound responsive devices that in response to a prompt, such as a hand clap, audibly announce themselves one after another. The order of announcement is determined by a process of collision detection with random back-off. Alternatively, announcement ordering is determined by comparison of device serial numbers, IP addresses, or numbers randomly generated by each device. However, the determined order of announcement may be inconvenient and illogical to the user triggering the announcement.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a user-friendly ordering of announcements and other human-discernible outputs from a collection of devices.